Wins

David and Kallie Marvin, the parents of Max Marvin, have graciously launched the Maximize Your Donation Project and are matching donations up to $100,000. The campaign launched on October 28th and as of November 25th, we have reached 30% of our goal. The campaign runs through December 31st.

The Marvins have been wanting to do this for a long time and found themselves in a position to finally be able to donate this amount in hopes of creating awareness for the Max Foundation and inspiring others to help the Foundation grow. ”Once someone has been touched by the loss of suicide directly, it kind of means something different. And unfortunately it’s happening to more and more people.”

One of the successful initiatives supported by the Max Foundation is Project 11, a mental health awareness curriculum for youth. “Project 11 has 5 schools joining this year and 2 more on the list for the upcoming year. Once educators find out how simple and complete it is to implement into their schools, we really feel like it’s going to take off,” David said of the program.” Our friends in Winnipeg with the True North Foundation have done such a tremendous job in designing and installing it. The Max Foundation donates all the books and program materials for mental wellness to each school that joins Project 11. With the growing expansion of Project 11 throughout Minnesota the biggest challenge for the Max Foundation is to raise enough funds to keep this fantastic programming free of charge to all schools that come on board.”

Kallie added, “Schools are starting to realize that there needs to be some type of program in place to help student wellness coordinators facilitate and help students. This is what Project 11 is, and when our small schools in the northern area realize the ease of it and how we are willing to help with it, excitement shows. We want to be ready and don’t want to tell anyone no.”

“The Max Foundation is only 3 years old and evolving. We’re not going to limit it and are excited to see where it will go in another 3 years,” David said. “We are going to work really hard to reach as many people as we can. When you do that, more people step up and realize the good we are doing. There are a lot of people out there in a position to help from something as small as the lemonade stand our neighbors did on 4th of July, to very, very generous checks people have made out to the foundation. It all matters.”

Kallie and David appreciate everything that everyone has done for the Max Foundation. The Maximize Your Donation Project is their way of saying thank you and continuing to help as many people as they can. “This is dear to our hearts and this is our focus. We hope our gift inspires others to get behind the Max Foundation.”

In 2021, the Max Foundation solidified a partnership with Tim Denney of Level 5 Services. Based out of Crookston, Minnesota, Tim is a premium provider of training, facilitation, and consultation services in the upper Midwest region. The Max Foundation and its mission was a perfect fit with Tim’s passion for wellbeing for everybody, suicide prevention, connecting people with services, and trying to change the trajectory of people’s lives when they’re really struggling. The main project our team focused on this year was a Coaches Clinic in Warroad and Roseau aimed to empower one of the most influential groups of adults in a community – coaches.

Having coached at the high school level, Tim understands well the opportunity coaches have to support youth. Coaches have a unique role in being able to recognize and assist students when they’re struggling because they see them so often and for such long periods of time. Endless hours in the coaching-athletic-participation relationship are spent solving the problems of real life. In that relationship, there exists a model of real life that is pressurized and very compact, yet, shows coaches how kids live their lives, how they handle stress, how they handle relationships with other people, and how they handle difficulty.

Unfortunately, because coaches – many who are volunteers – haven’t seen themselves as being in a key role for cultivating good mental health and wellbeing, this unique opportunity to influence kids has never really been leveraged. But the Max Foundation is working to change that.

During the Coaches Clinic in Warroad, Tim worked to build awareness around “upstream suicide prevention.” This prevention involves building a culture that reduces isolation for all students, improves the wellbeing – both emotional and physical – of all students, and provides a more pro social context in which students can live and thrive. “What we’re trying to address are the factors that might bring students to the point of despair,” Tim said, “Isolation, trauma history, unmet expectations in students’ lives. A big one that we don’t think about is anxiety. Many people struggle with that. And, obviously, depression.”

The training also focused on identifying student concerns and needs sooner, how to help those students get to effective services faster, and how to build a more supportive network. Nearly 50 participants, both high school staff and volunteer walk-on coaches were trained – a good number for communities the size of Warroad and Roseau.
While one successful 2-hour session is a good opening shot, Tim underscored the importance of a long-term game strategy to reinforce the skills learned in the clinics and to help coaches troubleshoot over time by sharpening these skills and building better connections to the network of mental health services available to students.

Tim praised the Max Foundation, saying, “One of the things that I really appreciated was how the foundation is focusing on Warroad and Roseau as their first priority. Sometimes as soon as we get on something like this we go big, but we can make a bigger difference sometimes if we stay focused on our primary mission.”

Coupled with the success of the first Coaches Clinic and with the above objective in mind, the Max Foundation and Tim are at work building a brand and marketing strategy to make the Coaches Clinics available for other communities.  

Thanks to these pioneering efforts and commitment to breaking down the barriers around mental health, the work the foundation is doing in communities is fast becoming a model for the rest of the region. In Tim’s words, “I wouldn’t be surprised if by the end of 2022 we see a number of community-based initiatives that begin to take on mental health, overall wellbeing, suicide prevention, and access to care. It’s really exciting.”

Suzi Friesen, Director of Educational Programs for the True North Youth Foundation (TNYF) in Manitoba, facilitates the development of educational programs, including Project 11.  Project 11 was inspired and created in honor of #11, Rick Rypien, former player of the Winnipeg Jets and Manitoba Moose. Suzi met Conway and the Marvin family in early 2019. She was inspired by how the family had such clarity about wanting to do something in Max’s honor. Their support and love for each other and the desire to do something positive that would empower other kids and other families really spoke to her. “There’s a warm homelike feeling that people really care,” Suzi said, of the Max Foundation and its members. She saw a lot of parallels between the values and goals of her work with Project 11, making the decision to partner an easy one.

In September 2019, with the support of the Max Foundation, Suzi brought the Project 11 curriculum into the Warroad Public Schools. While many schools opt for a one-off session, Warroad Schools invested in the 15-week program, first for the elementary levels, and later in a program for high school students.
“Everyone was on board,” Suzi, commented when describing the commitment of Warroad school administration and staff. “Staff didn’t see it as an extra but essential for students to continue to learn and grow. They were really excited about it and wanted to do it. It was nice to have such a good community feel.” By that Christmas, all the picture books for the curriculum had been donated by the Max Foundation, something considered unusual, Friesen noted, because schools are often limited by budget constraints.

The curriculum’s aim is to remove barriers and normalize the conversation regarding mental health. It teaches life skills that help students learn to self-reflect, become more self-aware, express how they’re feeling, and develop positive coping strategies. When the entire student body is working on practicing resiliency and building these skills, it lets students individually know they are not alone. Feeling a sense of community and belonging helps students feel less stuck and more empowered.

Three years later, Warroad continues to be “all in” with the Max Foundation’s ongoing support for Project 11. The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive as students relay back to teachers and Project 11 staff how they’ve incorporated the lessons learned into real life.

Suzi said, “The Max Foundation’s mission to want to make change – and important change – is just going to have such a positive effect not only on their community in these few years but in years to come. These students are going to be practicing these important life skills that many of us wish we had learned or known about when we were younger and it’s going to have a long-term impact.”

The work done in Warroad has inspired other communities, including Roseau, Laverne and places across Canada, to reach out to the Max Foundation and inquire about how best to incorporate Project 11’s programs into their own programs and schools.

Roseau’s School Superintendent Tom Jerome commented “It’s important that we acknowledge when we’re struggling. It’s important to learn how we can help each other. And when you go through these events and you lose a loved one, a staff member, or a family member, that leaves a mark on a person or a family, on a school that never goes away. And if there’s anything we can do to support any one of our kids, any one of our staff members, anybody in our community, we need to do that. And I think that the Max Foundation and all others involved has been a nudge, and a push to do something about it, to talk about this, because there are no do overs. I really believe that the Max Foundation has allowed kids to recognize and acknowledge mental health issues, has allowed adults to have conversations not in hushed corners or behind closed doors, but out in the open.”

Craig Oftedahl, Superintendent for the Laverne School District loves that the curriculum is a great tool box that is so easy for the staff to use. “I think the need is going to continue to escalate, and  having the program in place and having resources available becomes that much more important. I don’t know that anybody has all the answers, but you can talk through it and work through it and figure it out, or at least make a concerted effort to go in the right direction.”

Warroad Elementary Principal, Brita Comstock, and Kendra Marvin, MS, BCBA, Behavior Specialist, agree that the curriculum is being well received by the teachers and love that you open it up and just start teaching. Kendra continued, “We call it giving our teachers a toolbox, and equipping our teachers with tools so that they can help kids navigate through these big emotions and through trauma and through things from the school perspective. And I think we’ve seen success with the 15 week program too.”

“We want our students to know and understand that being a part of the school means that you are a part of the greater community and the world at large.”

The MAX Foundation is excited to welcome Paula Hedlund to the foundation’s Board of Directors. Paula is the Wellness Coordinator at LifeCare Medical Center and she brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to our board. Paula’s expertise is the connection between healthcare and community which is ideal for what we are all trying to accomplish.

Stronger together! We all know and appreciate the competitive spirit that has been cultivated in the state of Minnesota through hockey. The Max Foundation has been asked to share our message with some of our greatest competitors in the rink.

A big thank you to the following groups for inviting us into their programs to share our message: Roseau Boys Hockey team, East Grand Forks Boys Hockey team and the Grand Forks Knight’s Girls Hockey team, Concordia College Men’s and Women’s Hockey teams, ReHab Authority 5K run in Thief River Falls, Be The Voice event in Thief River Falls for Mental Health Awareness and Suicide Prevention. Together we can make a difference!!

The Max foundation joined the Warroad elementary school to celebrate Dr Suess’s Birthday and support the Read Across America program.  The Max foundation donated books that will be used in the classroom and the library.  The books that have been donated are entwined with the Project 11 program that the school has embraced and it is our hope that the donated books will help keep the conversation going on the seriousness of mental health.

The Max Foundation establishes a “campership” fund with Lake Trails Camp on Lake of the Woods. Since the 1950’s Lake Trails Camp has been offering teenage kids the opportunity to experience the great outdoors in its natural state and more importantly their program allows teens to unplug from the busyness of today’s world and reconnect with their inner self and learn how to build relationships with others.  Max cherished his time on the water and specifically Lake of the Woods and we are excited to support the great program that Lake Trails offers today’s kids.

The Max Foundation along with the Warroad and Roseau Girls high school hockey teams “hosted” a foundation awareness night at the Gardens Arena in Warroad. We are very proud of the rivalry between these hockey programs but are even prouder that our programs are able to unite in an effort to end the stigma that surrounds mental health….together we are stronger and can make a difference. A big thank you to the hundreds of fans that came to the Gardens Arena to learn more about the Max Foundation, participate in our fundraisers and enjoy a great girls hockey game!

The first project the Max Foundation will undertake is partnering with Project 11. Warroad Public Schools will be the first school outside of Manitoba fortunate enough to receive training and curriculum access to Project 11 materials. With the focus on mental wellness, Project 11 lessons will be integrated into our K-6th grade morning meeting times. During morning meeting our elementary teachers focus on social-emotional learning. Bringing Project 11 curriculum into Warroad Schools will allow us to enhance our focus on mental wellness, continue the important work of building student/teacher relationships, and create additional opportunities to develop coping skills in students. 

To find out more about Project 11 visit: www.projecteleven.ca

The following is information directly from their website:

Project 11 is inspired and created in honor of #11, Rick Rypien, former player of the Winnipeg Jets and Manitoba Moose. It is available to support students in Kindergarten to grade 4 (English or French) and in grades 5 to 8 (English) with virtual tutorials educating students about Mental Wellness.

Project 11 is an engaging cross-curricular proactive program targeting Manitoba’s English Language Arts and Health Education outcomes. Weekly lessons and daily activities have been designed to help support students and teachers in bringing mental health awareness, along with positive coping skills into their lives.

In addition to the Mental Wellness lessons, there are over 160 daily activities promoting healthy lifestyle practices that teachers can access and incorporate into their class:

• Yoga
• Indigenous Dancing
• Fun with Fitness
• Art Energy
• Music and Rhythm
• Fun with Food
• Relaxation Techniques
• Laughing Yoga
• Mindful Moments

Lesson Plan Themes:

K to Grade 4: Self-Awareness, Friendship, & Character Development
Grade 5: Friendship, Communication, & Self-Reflection
Grade 6: Stress, Communication, & Self-Reflection
Grade 7: Self-Awareness, Communication, & Relationships
Grade 8: Self-Awareness, Relationships, & Community

PROJECT 11 uses concepts such as practicing focusing the mind, increasing self-awareness of feelings and strengths, and building positive relationships. By concentrating on these areas, it is our goal for students to:

• Build a sense of their own team as a class
• Increase their ability to connect with one another
• Increase self-awareness of social, emotional and physical wellness
• Create a stage of empathy
• Enhance their academic performance